Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Roadtrip! Part 2: How to Spend a Week in Albania, from City to Seaside

Episode Date: July 7, 2019

My friend Cristal and I traveled down Croatia’s coastline then made our way to Albania. While getting here wasn’t easy and involved a bus detour in Montenegro, exploring Albania is definitely worth it if you enjoy good food, cheap prices, and fewer tourists than Europe’s more popular destinations. Sounds pretty good, right?   Cristal and I visited many UNESCO sites, you know I love a good UNESCO site, and on the Postcard Academy podcast, we share what we saw in Tirana, Durres, Berat, Gjirokastra, and Sarande. You’ll hear all the highlights from the trip — and some things that we thought were overrated — and hopefully you can use this info to plan your own trip to Albania.    If you’re a regular listener of the Postcard Academy, it would mean the world to me if you could take a moment to rate and/or review the show in Apple Podcasts. This helps other potential listeners know if the show is worth listening to :)   I’m your host, Sarah Mikutel. Did you know I host another show called Podcasting Step by Step? Check it out if you’ve been wanting to start a podcast. Every week, I break down ‘how to podcast’ with a little loving motivation to give you the skills and confidence you need to finally launch that show of your dreams.   Ready to travel? Get your free guide to cheap airfare.   Thank you so much for listening to this show. I know you’re busy and have many listening options, so it means a lot to me that you’re here. You are the best.   This podcast is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet? Postcard Academy listeners can get a FREE audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up via audibletrial.com/postcard   This podcast is also brought to you by World Nomads. Need simple and flexible travel insurance? Get a cost estimate from World Nomads using their handy calculator at postcardacademy.co/insurance Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to the Postcard Academy. I'm your host, Sarah Micatel, and my friend Crystal and I are back to share more about our recent road trip through Europe. Today, we are focusing on our travels through Albania. So a lot of people ask, is Albania safe for tourists? Albania is a country that struggled after communism fell in the 1990s. But it's a country that is definitely turning itself around. Now is a great time to go and visit there and just witness positive changes that are happening and also to help support those changes through tourism. Albania is a lovely country. Crystal and I felt perfectly safe there everywhere we went. We checked out so many beautiful UNESCO sites. You know I love a good UNESCO site. And so today we're going to share some of our favorite things that we saw in Tirana, Durez, Barat, Girocastra, Saranda. You will hear all the highlights of our trip, some things that we thought were overrated.

And so hopefully you will come away from this episode with a nice little plan for your own trip to Albania. My personal highlight was definitely the Albanian Riviera. You are not going to believe how incredibly blue this water is. and it's so much more affordable than a holiday in the French or Italian Riviera. And you can see photos and recommendations at posecardacademy.co. Crystal and I begin this episode by talking about our first impressions of Furgon, so the public vans that people use to get around. But before I get to that, since you're listening to this podcast, I'm guessing you like podcasts. Have you ever thought about making one of your own?

If so, check out my other podcast podcasting step by step. I would love to teach you how to become a world-class podcaster. Now into my conversation with Crystal. What was your first forgotten experience like? So I was surprised when it turned up. And I do remember a few times the bus driver was smoking while he was driving, which I just thought was bizarre. but that's what people do in Europe. They smoke everywhere.

Yeah, especially in Albania. And yeah, I was saying like when it happened in restaurants, I felt like it was the smell of freedom. I actually hate cigarette smoke and I think I'm allergic to it. But sometimes when I'm in a restaurant or a bar in Europe, and people are smoking, I'm like, yes, there's not so much government regulation. Like, get away, big brother. Like, I just feel like people are living in let live.

And so that's what I mean by. It smells like freedom. It's just kind of like a more of an independent spirit, I think. And just people taking things a little bit slower, which is something that I appreciate. Yeah, yeah. I could do without the smoking, though. Yeah, me too. But that was my positive spin on it.

And the ride from Montenegro to Albania was just stunning. You're just winding through the mountains along the water. And our first stop in Albania was at this rest stop that blew me away. I have never seen a rest up like this before they had a wine bar. They were serving cappuccino. I was just shocked. I was like, this is Albania? I was so surprised.

It was such a nice welcome. And I just thought, this is genius. All countries or cities should have their welcome. be like this experience. And, you know, it was much cheaper than a typical rest stop in other areas. It was the nicest rest stop I have ever seen. How long have I been traveling for 20 years? It was, there was a wine bar. There was a wood fire pizza oven where they just like made you fresh pizza. And then the bathroom was ridiculous. There was a bathroom attendant who just stood there and helped you with everything. It felt like I was in a five-star hotel. It was wonderful.

Yeah. Then they had like a little grocery area where you could buy stuff. And oh, another mistake that I made, even though I interviewed Ashley for my Croatia episode and she told me that the currency in Croatia was Kuna, I still bought a bunch of euro. I withdrew euro. So I had all of this euro on me. And in Albania, the currency is leck. So I didn't have any luck, but I did have some euro. And so the lady just let me pay in euro for my little snack to take on the forgone. And so I thought that was nice. And, yeah, Albania is a very affordable country. So you can get a main dish at a restaurant for like $4, I think. We blew way past that because we want you to try the different things. But like the Fergonme went, took from city to city. I think that's about the same kind of like four bucks or so.

And so, yeah, just such a nice switch from most of Europe. Yeah, it was nice to be able to, I felt like we ate really well in Albania. You know, we could have an entree. We could have a main. I had wine with every meal because they had excellent wines there and it was cheaper than water. Yeah. Always go with the wine. We tried some new things.

So in the past, I think I would not have been game to try. candied like orange peel or we even tried candied walnuts that had been candied with the shell on them and they were really tasty. I liked them. Yeah, I wonder if we can find that anywhere else because I feel like that's a really nice kind of treat to have. Yeah, we were staying in, or not saying, but we ate in a few nice little mom and pop places, which was cool. I'm glad that we were able to support the locals in that way. Our first stop was in Tirana, the capital, which had such a fantastic coffee culture. One of my favorite things is to sit outside at a cafe and just space out and stare at the

world. And so I really loved it. What did you think of Toronto? I really liked it too. I liked the, it felt like a young city. And when we did the, we did a walking tour there with. I think the guy was about 28, 29, and he was describing, you know, how the city had evolved after communists fell, communism fell. So I felt like it was a city that was kind of like waking up in,

I felt like in Albania. I, as a vegetarian, had the opportunity to have more local food than I've had in many other places. We ate pretty well in Albania in Toronto. I think our first meal was at ODA, ODA. It was a little bit tricky to find, but it's known to have some good vegetarian options. And they did. I was surprised at how well we were able to eat in Albania, considering we're broke vegetarians. What was your favorite meal? In Oda, we had that soup, that local soup. We had stuffed peppers at a lot of places that we liked. My favorite was probably either the stuffed peppers or the stuffed eggplant, all bejeans. Yeah.

Yeah. Because are always really good. Albania is known for having really nice, fresh vegetables. And when we were leaving Toronto, it hit me. Like, we stayed at a really cool Airbnb next to the new market. I think it's new. At least it's refurbished. And all of the local produce people are out there selling their fruits and their

vegetables and as we were leaving we bought some fruit and I thought oh my gosh last night we should have bought a bunch of vegetables here and just had a big like cookup in our kitchen that we had oh well next time it was fine it was nice to try all the local food yes and you mentioned the tour that we went on and so we went on one of the the free albania tours and yes that guy he was great I loved the stories that he told us. And I am embarrassed to admit that I did not really know that much about Albania's history. They were occupied for almost all of their existence from the Romans to the Ottomans. So most people in Albania are Muslim, not necessarily practicing, but that's what they would call themselves.

If people ask what their religion is. And I was thinking that communism was forced on them by the Soviet Union. But no, after World War II, the communist leader of Albania and Verhoja came into power and became a really brutal dictator that declared that Stalin and China weren't communist enough. And so that was a real surprise to me. I didn't realize what a severe regime that was. I don't even think I knew the name, and Verhoja before I went there. Did you?

No, definitely not. One thing that I did really love was finding out about the mayor, now president, I guess. You're the history buff, so correct me if I'm wrong, who was an artist previously. And he's trying to beautify the city, making everything colorful. But one interesting thing that happened on the tour was before we got to Albania. We had heard that there was this huge protest and one of the buildings had been set on fire. So we saw some video footage of it. And I think this was like a great example of how the media can totally blow things out of proportion because we passed by the building on the tour. Do you remember?

Yes. So people as a sort of more artistic form of protest through paint balls or like shot paint, shot paint. at the prime minister's building because, yeah, as you mentioned, he fancies himself in artist. And so there are some really bright buildings in Toronto because, you know, there were a lot of really drab communist buildings. And so you'll see like bright orange and all of these other really cool colors. And when I heard about that and saw those buildings, I thought, oh, wow, he is, he was the coolest mayor ever. before he was prime minister, he was mayor. And I thought he was so cool. But yeah, then there were the protests.

And then local people there were telling us some not that great things about the prime minister. In fact, one of them told us he was a bipolar cocaine addict. And there's actually tons of drugs and corruption in Albania. I later learned Albania is the drug trafficking capital of Europe. up and there's a ton of cocaine and heroin and weed moving in and out. I think I read that 40% of the farmland is used to grow marijuana. It's usually the little guy who gets caught. So you'll have these mafia and criminal gangs orchestrating all of this. And then it's the little people who end up getting in trouble. And then, you know, it's just people. There's not a lot

of jobs in Albania right now. And so people are turning to drugs, I guess, to make money. But instead, they could be turning to tourism. So everyone listening to this, go and visit Albania. I felt pretty safe there. Did you? Yeah, I definitely felt safe. And it was, it's interesting to see all the new modern buildings going up, the new infrastructure, kind of coupled with the degradation of the previous era. I thought that was fascinating. So you can still see the city is growing and like what it used to be and what it's becoming.

Yes. What were your favorite museums that we visited? Oh, so this is funny. I knew nothing about Albania. I kind of left that part up to you guys. I just went in with, you know, no expectations. So I do remember you talking about bunk art and being able to go down into these old bunkers. And we visited both bunk art one and bunk art two.

I'm totally going to forget which was which. One was the one that we had to take a bus out to. Yeah. So one is in the city and one you have to take a bus to. It's about maybe 20 minutes, half an hour away. One's more of a art gallery style and the other one's more museumy about the regime. I didn't go to bunker two because I was museumed out at that point in the day. But everyone told us to go to bunker one.

And I didn't think it was that great. We had to bus all the way out there. And so this was just a massive building that Hoja built for himself and his like cronies in case anyone tried to come and attack them. So it was built in the 70s. It was this shelter defense in case of nuclear chemical warfare. are super secret. Only a few people could access it. And they were doing military exercises there until the late 90s. And then during the 1997 uprising when they were like kicking these guys out, the military base was robbed. But now it's a museum. But I just, I feel like I had,

I couldn't really focus on the information they were trying to tell us. I don't think it was organized in that gradable way. If it were closer, I would recommend going it just so you could explore around. But I kind of wish that I went to Bunker 2 with you guys. Well, I think we only visited it quickly. Like I did it in about half an hour, 45 minutes. The Bunker 2. Yeah, at the end of the day. But I liked it better than Bunkard 1 for sure. Yeah. So I would recommend Bunkart too then because that's right in town. We also went to the Spy Museum, which again, I don't know if it was late in the day, but for me, that was recommended to us highly, and I didn't think the spy museum. I guess for me it wasn't telling a story.

It was like there were objects in there, but it was just too much data numbers about people rather than talking about people in their lives and how brutal the communist regime was because it was really, really awful. Like there was no escape. There was no contact from the outside world. if you did try to leave, they could, you know, punish everyone in your family, not just like your parents, but like your cousins, like could be thrown in jail. So there was, it was just really ruthless. And I felt like the merit that museum was so sterile. It was very content heavy. But I think they did try to have like a variety of media. There was that room at the back, but it was at the end. So I think by then we were kind of over at where they had the video clips

playing. Do you remember of the people who had been there who I guess had been detained? And they were talking about their experiences. So they did have that. But it was at the end and we didn't stay too long after. Yeah. There was there just for me there wasn't enough of that. And then my favorite museum that we went to was the propaganda art museum. And so that was a bunch of paintings. And there was a woman there who was sort of guiding a few people around. And I don't know if she was their guide or what the story was, but they weren't really paying attention to her. So I started talking to her. And it was really interesting to have her point out what was really going on in the paintings because back then under communism, you know, the artists were only allowed to paint

whatever the government sanctioned them to paint. And they weren't free to, you know, deviate from that at all. And she actually showed us one painting where a man was jailed for years because they deemed it like too pessimistic. They thought his painting of like a scene was too pessimistic. And so they threw him in jail. And so just hearing those, those stories, I thought really brought it to life. Yeah, she definitely made the experience because I remember they didn't really have any labels. Yeah. So just looking at the art itself, which was lovely, you don't, you wouldn't really get the whole context. So I would recommend if you go, maybe to just talk to the people and figure out if they've got a tour going or if they have someone who can walk you through the pieces.

Yeah. And one of the big things is the ideal man. And so in a lot of the paintings, you'll see this very strapping guy with a beautiful hair. And he's like the working man's man who is the center of society because, you know, in all the communist cultures, they put the working man at front and center as the sort of hero of the story. Yeah, he looked very Captain America like. We didn't see too many of those guys on the street, unfortunately. Albania, where were all your hunky men? Where is the ideal man?

And then, but something that is cool. And another, you know, aspect of communism is that women played a more, central role. And so in those paintings, you'll see a woman sort of leading the charge in, you know, a science lab or something like that, which at the same time you wouldn't have seen in a place like the U.S. So I thought that's an interesting, you know, thing to think about as well. Yeah, it felt very equal, the representation of men and women, at least in the artwork. At least in the artwork. Yeah. Actually, I'm thinking back to like when I was in Berlin last summer and I went to one of the GDR museum that talked about what life was like

on the eastern side of Germany. I painted a little bit of a rosy picture, but one of the things that they said was, there was a lot more equality in the GDR. However, the women were saying like, yeah, at work, we had more equality, but then we were also still doing double duty at home, which I guess is a common refrain. in most of the world. Yeah. So back to the bunkers really quick.

Enver Hoja, I think, created 173,000 of these concrete bunkers, just these really small things that in case there was like a huge war, America or like Russia came to bomb them, everyone could just go into their own bunker. And they were never used for anything. And they don't really know what to do with all of these things. So they're just dotting the landscape all around Albania. Yeah, and some of them, they've put some like nice artwork over it. They have mentioned that some have been taken overseas.

So if you find any strange cylindrical concrete domes, then, you know, they might be from Albania. So after Tirana, we went to Duras, I believe. That was our next stop. We had a big day that day because we went to Duras and then we spent the night in Barat. I'm pretty sure. Yes. So we were taking all of our belongings with us. I mean, you and Elki had big backpacks.

I had a little wheelie carry on. So we had all of this stuff with us. And we were kind of assuming, not assuming, hoping that there would be a place to leave this luggage. I mean, I think we tried to ask a tourist agent if that would be the case. And I think she said yes, but that was definitely not true. There was nowhere to leave our luggage. Yeah, so if you are carrying around all of your suitcases and stuff, Albania, I think their tourism isn't that developed yet, where you can assume you can find a place to keep that locked up for the day if you need to.

So anyway, we brought our stuff to Duras, D-U-R-R-E-S, and. Elki went into somebody's like tourist office and said, can we leave our stuff here? Actually, no. She found a man who spoke Italian and then went and came and got me. And then I translated the situation that we couldn't find a place to leave our stuff. And he said we could leave it there. And we just decided to take our chances because we didn't want to carry our stuff and we didn't have that many valuables anyway. I think I took my computer.

You took your computer and we just left everything else. and so duress was cool i don't know if it's a necessary step on the road trip what did you think i i would say if you so i think we had about seven or eight days yeah if that's how much time you have i would cut it i would not recommend duress but if you have more time and you maybe you want to hang up by the beach then you could consider it well and there there are better beaches so i actually would say you can skip duress even though we had a very lovely meal and we had drinks in this old venetian tower which was kind of cool i would i would recommend skipping duras and then sorry duress yeah sorry um it was just not it's not that much going on for the hassle of having

to get there i guess if you were driving and that's another thing we had originally planned on renting a car in albania because you can do it very cheaply but number of Number one, we kind of left it to the last minute and two, Elki was the only one who could drive. Because I think it was if you're not part of the European Union, you need an international driver's license, which we did not think to get. And so we ended up taking the frugons, which ended up working out fine. I was happy to take the frugans from town to town. Oh, and the roads were really, really windy, especially as the farther south that you got.

we were seeing graves, gravestones and flowers and things from people who had died. So, yeah, you have to be brave and not afraid of heights if you want to drive in certain parts of Albania. Yeah, I would say it's doable. You just need to be mindful. Just be careful where you're driving. And I felt like a lot of the distances looked shorter than they actually were. We were quite surprised about that. Yes, on the map, things look short.

but because everything is so windy and hilly, it'll take a lot, a lot longer. So after Derez, we took another Fergon. And I just have to talk about the Fergones one more time because I just think they're such a cute little mode of getting around. It was like there was really no timetable. It was just you would get into this van that had a sign in it that it was going to a certain city.

You took your chances that this was real and some scam. and when the van filled up, then you would go. And so when tourism gets bigger, I'm not really sure how they're going to be able to, you know, keep doing this unless more and more people start taking this job because there's not going to be enough. It's not like the parking lot was full of Furgans to go to Burra.

We got the only one that was leaving that afternoon, I think. I mean, leaving at least around 430 within those few hours. So we had a very long day. You are right to point out. I forgot that we had gone from Tirana to Jerez to Barat. And then we arrive in Barat. And our friend convinced us to not get a taxi, even though it would only have cost like three euro to...

Oh, you look up with these awful memories. Sorry. So taxis are really cheap in Barat, but for some reason our friend is an a virgin and we had all of our stuff and we were staying up in this like walled castle area on this hill and we were tired and I think it was starting to rain and we had all of our stuff and yeah it was just it was a tough hike up there yeah and let's not call it a hill it was definitely a mountain yeah and it wasn't like walking up a normal road the route that she took was like up all these crazy cobblestones. Yeah, because she's like a rock climber.

And so she's like Spider-Man jumping around. And we, we just, yeah, we're not in that league. And then eventually our Airbnb guy came and found us. But the area where we stayed living in the castle grounds was such a cool experience. So it's not like we were living in a castle, but we were living in this walled area that, I don't know, how would you explain it? They call it a castle, but it's not like it was, you were living in a king's house about, I think people have been living in that area since the fourth century BC. And it's been a castle, I think more or less since the 1200s. And during when communism was still around in the 90s, I think about 1,500 people were living there, like a few families. to one house. But yeah, it was a really neat, a neat place to stay. Yeah, I agree. I would recommend staying up in the Caskell area, even though it's tough to get up there.

Although, I think once you find the normal road, you can walk up and down, but taxis, of course, are definitely easy. And it was beautiful, just walking through all the different little alleyways, finding all the like lookouts. We found like a really beautiful lookout the next day that we were there. Yes, there's a museum up there called the Anufri, O-N-U-F-R-I, the Anufri Museum. And that's in the Church of the Dominion of St. Mary, I believe. It's a really beautiful church with 16th century paintings. I think the church is actually only from 1797, the one that's currently there. I think it's built on the earlier chapel.

There was something called a purple codex that was found there. It reminded me of Indiana Jones. Like Hitler wanted to find it and monks had to hide it. I tried to look up what a purple codex was and I'm still not really sure, but something very important. Yes. I think it's so rare that it's a secret. Like kind of like important like the gospels written on purple.

paper. I'm not really sure. But anyway, they found one there. Yeah. So I have to say that as much as I love Tarana, I felt like Barat was definitely the highlight of Albania for me. It was such a, a lovely city and I love the different neighborhoods. There were three different neighborhoods, the castle area that we stayed in and then two different neighborhoods down below. And we did another great walking tour there, which was, I guess, less of a walking tour and more of just like hanging out with this local guy who showed us everything there was to see. Yeah, I mean, I would call it a tour. I mean, he was so generous of his time.

It was called Barat City Tour. And we went with Yusuf, the guy who founded it. And he was fantastic. I mean, we ended up spending like at least five hours with him. And he took us all around. And to be honest with you, see, this is why I love walking tours so much. because if we didn't do that tour with him, I don't think he would have felt the same way about Barat.

Do you? I feel like the things that we were able to see definitely enhanced my opinion of the city. So we got to go into these buildings that were under construction. So he took us to the King Mosque, which is the oldest still working mosque in Albania, goes back to 1490. And I don't know that much.

about Islam. So he was telling us that there used to be two imams, one inside and then one outside, because I guess in olden times, if the crowd was overflowing, they didn't have a speaker. And so somebody had to be on the outside telling people or helping them along with their prayers, I guess. Yeah. And in that mosque, Elki and I went up into the tower, which I guess you wouldn't usually be able to do if it was it was operating as normal. It was definitely hazard. us. There was construction material everywhere, so I don't know why he let us go up there. And it was very narrow. So we, you could almost, I guess, you couldn't stretch your arms out as you're walking up. It was almost like shoulder to shoulder. Yeah. So going up this super narrow stairway,

winding stairway, and then at the top, there was a tiny, tiny little balcony, which would be so easy to fall off of. So don't take your children up there if that's an option. But we got a beautiful view of the city. It was really cool seeing the city through Yusuf's eyes. I'm calling him Yusuf because that's how I'm pronouncing. I-S-U-F. But so in 1555, he said that there was a Christian prince who converted and built a mosque. And then he built a church for his sister.

And that had lasted for centuries. but then it was destroyed in 1967 because of communism. So the communist leaders said all religious buildings have to be destroyed unless they can prove that they have historical value. And so there were some historians who really wanted to save as many of these buildings as possible. So the Christian prince's mosque is still there. But the church was rebuilt only a few years ago, Artur, leader said that in the 1400s, Barat was a multicultural city. And it still seems to be pretty tolerant based on what he said. There are Christians in Albania along with the Muslim. So in

Albania, they're Orthodox and in Croatia. They're Catholic. And one of my favorite places in Barat was the Giro, which was the big pedestrian street. So you have said that people just come here to stroll and show off and just walk down this really, really, really long pedestrian street and just say, hello, how are you? There's tons of cafes where people are just hanging out, enjoying the sun. And I guess before communism, the street was also filled with a lot of shops going back to the old times, but because people from around the world traded there. Yeah, and it was, it was cute. I think I remember one thing he said was that, everybody has our favorite cafes.

And they always go to the same one. So if you're looking for your friend, you would go look for them in their cafe. And there's a ton of options. So you can take your pick when you're there. And you start on one end. And then you can see from where you are all these homes on this hill. And Barra is actually known as the town of a thousand windows. And so this is another UNESCO World Heritage site.

you've got all of these window houses and they look really, really old. And they, I think the oldest one is from 1720. So I guess really not that old in the grand scheme of things for an American tourist. I guess that would be considered kind of old. But it's still really cool to see. But I guess an earthquake destroyed most of them. But we got to go inside one of those, which was pretty neat. Yeah, that was a cool experience.

Because I think one of his friends has a guest house called Guesthouse Vescivi. And so they had the first floor was stone and the second floor was wood and just lots of windows for sun. Because I think back in the day when those were built, it was quite common for people to only have one window or only be allowed to have one window. But here people had many because they like to have the sun. And he said that was unusual. We continued our epic walk and he showed us where the Pasha built the harrow. in 1750, so that's just sort of a ruin that's still there. One thing that I have to say that I thought was really sad is there was somebody in town who had the bright idea to build this gigantic

supermarket, I think a conad, which is one of the ones that I go to in Italy. And when I first saw this, I thought, oh my God, how cool. We can get groceries here. Like this place has everything. It's so huge. But then Yusuf said that there used to be a multi-level market where all the locals sold their products and they all got kicked out and with like nowhere to be relocated and put this giant grocery store up. And I thought that was such a shame and it really broke my heart because I love local markets and I love supporting the locals. And he said that the locals are sort of like protesting this new massive grocery store and he thinks it won't last because it's not part of their culture. it's not how they want to do business.

Yeah, he said that when they were constructing it also, they made it very difficult for people who lived around the area to get around because they kind of just took over all the space. Yeah, so that's a good example of how not to do business. Go in, bulldoze the locals, don't ask them anything, and then wonder why it fails. Is there anything else that we want to say about Barat? So we ate at this, I remember we ate at the,

this cute little tiny restaurant that was in, I guess it was just someone's house that they've converted into a restaurant. And we had some great meals there. You got to try one of my favorite meals in Albania, which was the fur guests. Do you remember that? Yes. So that was, I remember enjoying it. I don't really remember what was in there. It was sort of like a hodgepash of a bunch of different things. Yeah, I thought it was a more sophisticated dish. But when I Googled it later. It's basically just tomatoes, red peppers, and then like a combination of either feta cheese or ricotta with butter and garlic. Yum. Well, that's pretty tasty. I loved it. Besides the stuffed peppers and eggplant, that was one of my favorites. Yeah, so that was nice. And then

the next day we went to Girocastra, which is another old Ottoman town. And I have several things that I would do differently for this day. What would you have done differently? All right. So the rest of our trip was a little bit complicated geographically because, as you said, it looks so close. But it's just deceiving on the map. And so I saw a tour to get to Girocastra. In fact, I think Yusuf said that he knew somebody that could have taken us, driven us, and done a tour.

And I think that we should have done that. That would have been the easiest way. Instead, we took a Fragon, but we had to transfer halfway to a different one because we didn't catch one that was direct. And so by the time we got to GiroCastra, we literally only had like two hours, it seemed, before we had to get into another Fragon to go to our next destination, which was Saranda. So I felt like that day was kind of just commuting and really doing nothing. It was very rushed. I know in the morning we made the decision because we know there was a bus that would have taken us there directly or if we're gone that would have taken us there directly. But we would have had to leave super early in the morning and skip breakfast, which was the best part of that terrible Airbnb.

Yeah. So I think breakfast won. And we decided to do the, you know, changing. for guns option, but it took longer than we thought it would take. I think that's a problem as well. Yeah, but I still think we should have done a tour because I felt like when we got there, I don't know, maybe if we had more time, it would have been different, but we went into one of the old, I don't know if you would call it a mansion, but a big house that somebody

important lived in and walked around and explored that. I would have liked somebody there to explain the history to us because we were just sort of walking in rooms and, you know, it was, it was cool. But I don't know, I left feeling like this was a significant place, but I didn't really know anything about it. Yeah, and we didn't really get to know much about it because we arrived, we went to the information center and they basically said, well, you have time to do one thing. And I know a lot of people who go there, they go to the castle, but we had already seen a lot of castles. Yeah. So we decided to see the historical homes instead. I felt like there was a lot to see in Chirocaster, but you need at least half a day.

We didn't have that much time. Yeah. And it's cute. It looks more touristy than Barat. It's a little bit similar to Barat, a little bit smaller. So maybe if you had to choose between the two, you could do one or the other and don't kill yourself trying to do both. But yeah, I guess, yeah, I don't know. I feel like I didn't get a good enough feel to say whether it was a yeah or nay for me. But we did have a nice meal there. Yeah, we ate at this place called Restaurant Traditional O'Daha, O-D-A-J-A. And I think, I can't even remember what I got there. I think I had that tomatoe dish that we really liked. Yeah, we shared a couple things. They, oh, that was the place that had the balls. Do you remember that? Are they like spinachy ones? The tomato, the tomato balls.

Okay. Okay. So they had some interesting dishes that we hadn't tried before in Albania. Yeah. Then we had to get in another Fergon and make our way to Saranda. And Saranda, for me, was my favorite place in Albania. It was everything that I was hoping for. And I'm so glad that we ended up there. So that was this glorious beach town.

You found us at an Airbnb that was incredible. So it was a three-bedroom. We all had our own room. We didn't really... Oh, we had the giant balcony as well. Giant balcony overlooking the ocean. I'm not really sure what the nightlife is because we don't traditionally explore that type of stuff.

It's not the most beautiful town, but it was nice. So we had a really nice meal at Mama's Kitchen. They made fresh juice. It was overlooking the water. It happened to meet Eurovision when we were there. which I thought that was really fun to watch and get excited about. Yeah, that was our big night out. We watched your vision online.

And the best part for me was the beach. We went to Simil, K-S-A-M-I-L. And it was so much better than any of the beaches that I saw in Bali. Like the water was really crystal blue. We parked ourselves at this restaurant slash beach club, beach club called Guvat, G-U-V-A-T. And I don't know what it is later in the summer, but in late May, they didn't charge to sit in the chairs. So we were able to just sit there, hang out. They brought out, you know, our cabuccinos or what you're, I think you got a mojito.

So whatever we wanted to. And it was cold, but Elki braved the water and she, she had a good time swimming and playing with all the little fish. She was snorkeling, yep. We're just diving around, yeah, with her eye goggles. And I don't think you can compare the water to Bali. Like, Bali's beaches are awful. Yeah. It was definitely up there with some of the best beaches I've ever seen.

I guess I'm comparing it to Bali because that's what I had imagined Bali to be before I went. And I was so disappointed that I flew 25 hours to get there. And I was like, is this all there is? So now, you know, I never know what to really expect when I show up in a place. And I was so happy that Albania lived up to its reputation of having, you know, its own little Riviera. and so I was just so pleasantly surprised by the, that it matched my expectation. So it was beautiful. And we had our last meal there at Gouvat.

We ate outside and really did it up. I think I had several courses. I couldn't help myself. We had dessert there. It was lovely too. Yeah. And yeah, I loved it. So meal the beach and Gouvaat, that restaurant and Beach Club specifically was wonderful.

and we took the bus there and getting back, the buses had stopped, and we dragged Elki kicking and screaming into a taxi to get back to our Airbnb. And I would like to reemphasize. She wanted to hitchhike. Oh, yeah, hitchhiking. That's right. That's right. I would like to reemphasize for everyone listening.

The taxis are not that expensive. Some people just have the mindset against it, but fight them. because it's worth it. And in fact, I would say a final mistake that I made on this trip was Elki and I should have taken a taxi to our Fergonne that morning because we ended this trip with you going to Greece and Elki and I went to Italy and the Fergonne was leaving very, very early in the morning, maybe like 6 or 7 a.m. And we had to be there by that time. And I knew it was going to be hot and humid. And if we walked there, we were going to be really sticky and gross and have to sit in our own sweat for like four hours for us to get to our ferry destination. And I was right the next morning.

We were disgusting by the time we got in the frugon. So we should have taken a taxi. I think that taxi was crazy though. I can't remember exactly how much it was, but it was literally like a three-minute drive. I think it ended up being like 7 to 10 euro, which is nothing in the grand scheme of things. It was just you guys were comparing to Albanian prices. Well, it just was the principal, Sarah. Yeah, the principle. I get it. I get it.

Back to the awesomeness of Saranda. So one thing that we learned that I thought was a nice. a little trick, at least I hadn't heard of it, was that you can fly into Corfu Greece. If you can't find a cheap flight to Albania, there's always cheap flights to Corfu. And then just take a 30-minute ferry and you are going to be in Saranda and it's going to be just as delicious and to have beautiful beaches, but it's going to be a lot cheaper than a holiday in Greece. Well, yeah, that's kind of what I did. I left you guys in Saranda, got the ferry over to Corfu because I found a cheap flight to Budapest.

And the people I spoke to there said that was really common for people to fly into Corfu to get to Albania. I guess, yeah, it was new to me anyway. But I thought I was like discovering like this super travel hack. I guess the secret's out. But I don't think a lot of people in the U.S. know that. So hopefully I've taught somebody something new and useful. Yes, well, I didn't know it either. Is there anything else that we want to say about Albania, Croatia?

Did you not want to talk about where was it you got the ferry from? Or do you want to talk a bit about the ferry as well, like getting the ferry over to Italy? So after we left you, Crystal, Elki and I went, took that for gone to Vlore, I think, or Vlore. I can't remember how you pronounce that. I remember when we were researching it, the views were supposed to be amazing. on the ride there. So was that impressive? The ride actually was beautiful. It was a gorgeous ride up to Vlore. I don't know if you have to go to Vlour just to go to Vlore. If you're going to the beaches,

if you're going to the beaches, I would stick to more south and Sauranda. But we took the ferry to Vlore because it was just an easy way to get to Brindisi, Italy. And we wanted to end our trip over in Matera, which is the cultural capital of Europe this year. And so I will do a different episode on Matera in that region of Italy. But Brindisi and Bari, which we went to, spent a few days in stunning areas of Italy. I definitely want to go back to both of them. But we took a ferry earlier to, oh, we forgot about this part of our trip. We took the ferry to get from Split to Dubrovnik.

I had forgotten about that. And that was a really nice ferry. The sea was so rocky that I ended up getting a little bit seasick on it. And I was expecting a ferry like this to go from Albania to Italy. And that was not the case at all. I remember I got my ferry from Saranda to course. And I message you and I said, this feels like a communist era fairy. Ours definitely did too.

It was like very smoky, very old. It was jam-packed. And I can't remember how many hours it was. But if I could do it again, I would have upgraded and got in a room and just laid there, laid in bed for, had the option to lay in bed. Because by the time we got in there, most of like the seats and stuff, were taken. So we spent a few hours outside staring at the water and then it started to get a little bit cooler. And so I just went inside. And I'm fairly certain that on this ferry, my wallet

got stolen. And so thankfully, I had elkie with me or else I'm not sure what I would have done. I was thinking, gosh, if I was solo traveling, what would I have done in the situation? Because like a fool, oh, this is my final mistake, I guess. I did. I didn't. I did. I was. I did. I was. I didn't do this the whole trip, but that day I had both of my debit card and my credit card in my wallet, my brand new wallet that I got in split. And yeah, somebody swiped my new wallet. Oh, my license was in there too. So I was bummed to lose that. But thankfully, I had Elki and she was able to spot me some money to get back to England. But yeah, you feel so naked when you lose, you know, all of your ability to pay for anything.

Yeah, it must have been pretty scary. Yeah, so that was a bummer, but I was able to cancel my cards. And so I took care of that. I did try to, yeah, I looked everywhere. It's gone. It's definitely stolen. At least it happened at the end of your trip. Yes, that's true.

That is true. And how was, I guess, just the grease part of your trip, or how did your trip end? So I spent, I think, three nights in Corfu, and it was, for me, it was more like a refresher period because we spent like maybe one or two nights in each place all through Croatian, Albania. And I'm not used to traveling that fast. Yeah. So by that stage, I was exhausted and I was just ready to just sit and do nothing for a little while. Yeah. So that was really nice.

I stayed in this cute Airbnb in, away from the old. in Corfu in this beautiful attic apartment. I got so excited. I remember I was telling you guys about it when I found I was like, it's got a writing desk. There's a, there's farm animals and there's a garden. And it was everything I wanted it to be. So it was a nice little break.

Okay, good, good. Well, I'm glad that you were able to end that leg of the trip, nice end in relaxation. So where are we meeting next, Crystal? I definitely want to see. Bosnia. I know you were speaking about it a lot while we were traveling. And then I met other people who were just raving about it. Yes. I think about it all the time. And I keep saying, I keep saying, I'm going to do a podcast episode about it. And it's just one of those places that is so special to me

that I feel like I'll never do it justice. And now I've talked it up so much that I definitely won't do it justice. But eventually I'll have a Bosnia episode. The history is so complex and and important that I feel like you have to have a history episode and a travel fun episode as well and yeah

I just haven't had the time or like the right resources to do that yet but I will get there and yes let's definitely go to Bosnia together yeah but thank you so much for inviting me to Albania it was a highlight for me I think it's my favorite country in Europe I don't think we mentioned this but before this trip I was kind of against Europe.

It's never been my favorite place to travel to, but I guess I just haven't been doing to the right places because Albania was delightful. I'm glad that you had fun and I'm glad that we were able to do this trip together. We originally talking about doing Italy together and I felt kind of bad that we didn't end up there together. So it makes me happy that you enjoyed Albania. Yeah, it was definitely the highlight. And we can do Italy together another time because you're always in Italy. Yes, yes. All right.

Well, I'll start planning a trip. Thanks for chatting with me, Crystal. Thank you for having me. Bye. Bye. Another great trip with Crystal Dyer. I cannot wait to meet up with her again, either in Mexico or Bosnia or somewhere else. On the next episode, I will dive deeper into Toronto with Rachel Berryman.

She is an American who moved to Albania with the Peace Corps. But now she owns a yoga studio there, so we will hear all about her favorite recommendations, how she was able to open a business in Albania, a very successful one. And we'll learn more about Albania's communist history. I hope that you get to see a good friend this weekend. Maybe you can even plan a little road trip together through Croatia and Albania. We've got the itinerary waiting for you at postcardacademy.co. That's all for now.

Thanks for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarahmicatel.com slash blank no more.